Feder: Cohn's objection leads to WLS anchor musical chairs

As WLS 890-AM gears up for coverage of the presidential election year, there's upheaval behind the scenes in the newsroom of the Cumulus Media news/talk station.

Management's plans to reassign all three of the station's weekday news anchors was thrown into turmoil this week when afternoon news anchor Lauren Cohn balked at her transfer to middays.

Sources said the original strategy was for news director John Dempsey to move from Erich Mancow Muller's morning show to Big John Howell's afternoon show. Nick Gale would move from middays (when the syndicated shows of Chris Plante and Rush Limbaugh air) to mornings. And Cohn would move from Howell's show to middays.

Cohn's objection to what she viewed as a demotion prompted WLS bosses to alter their plans - at least for the time being.On Wednesday, program director Stephanie Tichenor announced that Dempsey would move to middays and Gale would move to mornings, effective next week. There was no reference to Cohn in the announcement.

• Read more of the news from Robert Feder at robertfeder.com